- Quora raised $75 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz, its first funding since 2017, to expand its AI chat platform, Poe.
- Poe lets developers build and monetize chatbots with over 18 million installs since launching.
- Despite valuation fluctuations, Quora aims to establish an alternative model to YouTube based on ambient intelligence.
Quora secures $75M funding
Question-and-answer community Quora pulled in $75 million this week, its first fundraising round since 2017, led by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. Quora will devote capital to expanding its AI conversation platform, Poe, and the emerging budding creator economy ecosystem.
Poe allows developers to build chatbots leveraging models like GPT-3 and DALL-E and monetize their creations.
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Monetizable chatbots
Quora aims to establish an alternative talent monetization model to YouTube advertising centered on ambient intelligence. The funding will help attract builders by compensating their contributions.
The sizable injection comes despite Quora’s valuation sinking from $1.8 billion in 2017 to $500 million as macro conditions cooled investor optimism.
Expansion amidst valuation fluctuations
However, since launching last February, Poe already boasts over 18 million installs and 1.2 million monthly active users.
“Poe shows increasing returns to scale and is among the top 5 largest generative AI properties,” wrote a16z’s David George, citing 1+ million bots hosted. While Quora is cash flow positive, all new capital will focus squarely on expansion tools for Poe and its money-making bots.
Quora is now poised to boost its ambitious goal of empowering individuals to profit from immersive synthetic conversation design. Its war chest and built-in question-based knowledge base offer clear differentiation in an increasingly crowded space.
